CheriasChatter.com

My cat Pooh is laying with his body drapped across my foot and his front paws wrapped around my leg.  He is so soft and cuddly and loves to sit beside me while I eat or even lay on my belly while we watch TV.  But he hasn’t always been such a loving pet.

When my first husband and I split up, I claimed our dog ‘Nook whom we all loved dearly.  But I was catless.  Then one day, my daughter Amy called and was telling me about a kitten that had been left outside the vet office she was working at and wanted to know if I would take him into my home.  Well, I said no, but that ‘no’ soon turned into a ‘yes’.

I made the decision to name him Pooh because my granddaughter Olivia loved Winnie the Pooh.  We just knew he would be the perfect pet.  He was so cute and loved Olivia’s hugs — at least for a short while.  As he got a few months older he suddenly changed from sweet to sour.  What was once the perfect pet became what I called the ‘devil cat’. 

Olivia or I could walk by him and he would attack us.  We were always getting scratches on our legs and he would even jump up and bite us on whatever part of our body he could latch onto.  Olivia was real young and this would scare her.  It just plain made me mad.

Amy assured me that it was just the kitten stage he was going through, but after a while she realized that was not the case.  When he was old enough I made a trip back to her home in N.C.  to have him nuetered and she assured me that this would calm Pooh down.  Wrong… if anything he may have gotten even worse.  So she decided Pooh needed a friend to play with.  Well, I was not listening to that advise since I felt that she had been wrong before.  I would not have another cat, but I was so wrong.

My other daughter Tami, who also happens to be Olivia’s mom, found a kitten that just happened to be needing a home, so she decided I was the one to give her a home and if Amy was right it might even help with Pooh.  So, Tigger became a part of my life.  Well — guess what happened — Pooh did calm down a lot.  But he also became really shy.  He didn’t want anything to do with us humans.  He just enjoyed playing with his new sister Tigger.

Then one day Pooh just wasn’t acting right.  He wouldn’t eat or drink anything.  I called Amy and she advised me to get him to the vet immediately.  I did just that and he was hospitalized.  The vet called me later that evening with some very disturbing news.  He didn’t think Pooh would survive and asked if I wanted to just let him be ‘put to sleep’.  And once again I was on the phone to Amy getting advise.  She said to give him some time.  And time was just what Pooh needed along with a lot of love.

Pooh not only survived, but he became one of the most loving cats anyone could ever want.  But I must admit, he does seem to think that I’m just the most wonderful person around.  I’m now his favorite human — a far difference from when I considered him the ‘devil cat’.  I think he might even qualify for the title ‘angel’.

I haven’t written anything for several days, so I guess I’d better get busy and chat about something.  But I have no idea what this chat will be about.  Since it is my ‘chatter’, I suppose I can chat about most anything, so that’s just what I’ll do.

I have been asking Rick to put a roof over our back patio for quite a while now.  Well, he finally decided to get to work on it.  It took most of the summer, but he got it finished just in time for us to enjoy a late summer thunderstorm.  We made the decision to put on a tin roof because we both had tin on our homes as kids.  We also love the sound of rain hitting the tin.  He finished with the roof on Monday and we had not gotten any rain for several days, but today we got just enough rain with the storm for us to sit out and enjoy the  sound of the raindrops hitting the tin roof for the first time.  The storm didn’t last very long, but it was perfect for us.

Another project that we undertook was building a picnic table for our church’s picnic shelter.  It didn’t take very long to finish it.  We actually built it in one day.  I say we because I helped build the table and I also helped with the patio roof.  I know absolutely nothing about carpentry, but I’m real good at giving advise and supervising.  Rick just grins and listens to what I have to say and then does things the way he knows they should be done.  And the picnic table got finished and our church family and friends got to use it on Sunday for our annual Homecoming dinner.

Our next projects will be building some more picnic tables and benches that we hope to sell, but if no one wants to buy them, then we will just enjoy them ourselves on our own property sitting along the creek, listening to the frogs chirping and watching the ducks swim by.

Well, I guess I’m finished ‘chattering’ for now, so catch me again soon.

I was the first grandchild to be born in my mom’s family, and I admit I was spoiled rotten.  You’ve probably already read that story in my ‘chatter’ about kinfolks.  I always wanted to grow up and have children and then grandchildren.  I did have two beautiful daughters, and I know God gave me girls because I had no idea on how to take care of boys.  Both girls are grown and have wonderful lives of their own now, but we still are very close.

Amy lives in Rock Hill, SC where she enjoys skydiving and spoiling her cats, which I consider my grandchildren along with her beloved Sage, who is now running thru the fields of heaven.  Tami has also blessed me with two beautiful granddaughters along with several four legged critters.  But this story is about the human granddaughters.

First of all, there is 12 year old Olivia.  She is a beautiful blonde with gorgous blue eyes that just sparkle and makes your heart just melt.  One special occasion with Olivia was that she went on my very first date with Rick.  That’s a story for another time I guess.  She spends a lot of time at our home and we love having her with us.  Rick likes to sing to her, but he doesn’t sing well known songs – he makes them up as he sings.  That really gets to Olivia.  She rolls her eyes and says “Oh Rick”.  Sometimes I think she would like to climb underneath the table and hide when he sings to her in restaurants.

Olivia used to love for us to take her picture, but now that she has reached that pre-teen stage, she just wants us to lose our cameras.  But we just keep snapping away.

And now along comes Madison.  At almost 4 months old she is just like her older sister.  She has beautiful blue eyes, but her hair is going to be red, just like her mom’s.  As for Rick’s singing, she just thinks it is funny.  I’m sure tho at some point in time Rick will manage to embarrass her also.  And for right now, she is still loving all the pictures we snap of her.

We love those two precious granddaughters so very much and I hope that someday I’ll be enough like my Granny Cook that they can say “Granny Cheria spoiled us rotten”.

I’m sitting here eating a popsicle and it tastes sooooo good.  It is helping to cool me off from these 90+ degree temperatures we are experiencing.  It has been hot – not warm – but very hot.  I don’t recall it being this hot for quite a while.

The sky looks like we might get a storm.  If we do it might help cool things down some.  We will be going to church in a little while and I’m sure I’ll be sitting there sweating and fanning.  Yes, we country girls sweat.

When I was younger we would go wade in the creek to cool off.  The creek we have in our backyard has snakes swimming around, so I won’t be doing that since I hate snakes.  Then later I owned a pool and a quick jump into it helped to cool us off.  I no longer own that pool, so now I depend on air conditioning.  I do complain sometimes when Rick sets it a little too cool, but I’ve welcomed it this week.

I guess we are all huffing and puffing from the heat now, but just wait until this winter when the snow is flying and the temperatures drop to 0 degrees.  Oh well…I guess no matter what, we will always complain.  In the meantime I’ll just continue to eat my popsicles and drink that ice tea and then this winter I’ll drink hot tea to help keep warm.

Our cats Pooh and Tigger are inside at all times, so the heat doesn’t bother them.  Houdini, our big beautiful dog lives inside, but he does go outside for walks and those necessary outdoor functions.  He loves to go for his walks, but he is very happy to get back inside for his water and napping on the cool hardwood floors.

We just need to enjoy the weather God gives us, whether it be hot or cold or somewhere in the just-right range.  And make sure your outside pets have plenty of shade and cool water.  So until my next writing, enjoy life and pray for heat relief - but not too much relief.

I have a plaque that reads “Nothing is wrong when done to music.  Let the music begin”.  I agree with that statement.  There is no way one can be unhappy when there is music.  Music just seems to lift the spirit no matter what the situation might be.

Music has always been a part of my life as far back as I can remember.  God blessed me by letting me be born into a very musically talented family.  I didn’t get a lot of talent, but I sure got the love of music.  I grew up listening to my grandparents on the Cook side singing and Uncle Doug Cook was the choir leader at our church when I was younger.

Gospel music was my introduction to music and I have since added other styles for my listening pleasure.  As a teenager I thought Country, Old Time Rock and Roll and Gospel were the only types of music worth listening to.  Now I know better.  I’ve now added Bluegrass and Celtic.  And I can handle other types of music in ‘small doses’.

As for my musical talents — well — I play the organ and sometimes the piano at our church.  And I try to sing along with the choir.  When we were younger my two sisters and I along with some friends traveled around to different churches in the area and sang during revivals and we really enjoyed it.  As we grew older and went our separate ways, we drifted away from our music travels.  But once in a while a friend and I will sing a duet at church.  I also have a keyboard at home and I do sit and play and sing just for my own enjoyment.

Music is always included every Sunday during church.  Then every Thursday we enjoy The Pickin Porch at the local mall where we enjoy mostly Bluegrass, but at times other types of music as well.

My husband Rick likes to sing to me and our granddaughters Olivia and Madison.  He is always making up his own songs about his love for me and the girls.  As a ‘pre-teen’, Olivia is always making faces at him, but Madison at just a few months old, just thinks he is funny when he sings.  One of these days we just might have ourselves a quartet.

So, if you find yourself feeling down and out, just find some good music and things will brighten up.  So “let the music begin”.